BMW BLOG

My last trip at the BMW Welt took place nearly two years ago and it coincided with my second BMW European Delivery experience. The first stone for the new delivery facility was set back in 2003 and four years later, BMW Group opened the doors for one of the most important architectural milestone in Munich. With around two million visitors annually, it is one of the most popular attractions in Munich.

BMW Welt servers primarily as BMW delivery center where people across the Old Continent and North America come to receive the key to their new car. The experience is truly unique and it is by far one of the best car purchasing experiences I have ever had.

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And my answer is simple: VERY EXCITING. As someone who has twice picked-up my bimmers through the BMW European Delivery program, I can tell you that each time I had the time of my life and could have never imagined that buying a car can be so exciting.

After all, we’re all used to just go to a dealerships, scout the showroom area or the parking for that car that we want or like, then get into a painful negotiation game and hopefully driving off with the car you wanted. But the BMW European Delivery program really takes the shopping experience to another level. First of all, all the hassle and negotiation techniques are far limited, almost non-existent. Then, it’s the price which most of the time is around 10% lower than the regular sticker.

We have talked about the BMW European Delivery program many times and we’ll leave it up to you to read more on it in our ED section or you can follow my last European trip here.

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The fourth episode of the BMW European Delivery Travel Show continues with a visit to the famous BMW Museum, located right across from the BMW Welt. The Museum re-opened last year and it got better than ever. If you recall, our German editor Benny, virtually took us on his trip to the BMW Museum.

BMW Museum with its 53,000 square foot becomes one of the largest car museums in the world. It accommodates around 400,000 visitors per year, up 150,000 compared to the previous facility. There are over 120 exhibits displayed in the museum.

Now, let’s see what Jedrzej has prepared for us, this has proven to be an entertaining and informative series. You can always catch the other episodes by heading over to our BMW European Delivery section.

Video courtesy of PostCardsFilms

We’re continuing the Travel Show BMW European Delivery series with the third episode which focuses on the new BMW delivery center: The Welt. In English, “Welt” stands for “World” and it’s the newest and impressive delivery center found in the heart of Munich.

BMW Welt was opened in late 2007 and even though BMW has not disclosed the cost of the Welt project; people close to the company said the price tag was significantly more than 200 million euros, or about $275 million.

About 170 vehicles a day are delivered to the cathedral-like showroom at BMW Welt. Rather than picking up a new car at a local dealership, drivers who pay 457 euro ($674) for the privilege to come here to receive delivery of their vehicles, finding them bathed in a spotlight and rotating on a turntable.

I had the opportunity to pick up my car at the Welt and all I have to say is that the buying experience has been taken to a whole new level by BMW. You can read my story here

But let’s see the footage filmed by Jedrzej from PostCardsFilms

The first two episodes after the jump:

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We’re continuing the BMW European Delivery video series with the second episode. Last week, I introduced you the first episode, produced and directed by Jedrzej Jonasz.

Jedrzej is also a producer of a web travel series on a site called Tripfilms.com as well as a filmmaker with a documentary and film background.

Our BMW European Delivery section will tell you all about this great program.

BMW European Delivery – BMW’s hidden gem that not many of the bimmer fans living in the U.S know about it. European Delivery (ED) is a program offered by BMW North America that allows US Citizens and US Residents to pick up their car in Munich, Germany and enjoy driving it throughout Europe while on vacation.

The ED program gives you one of the most amazing experiences that you could get when purchasing a BMW. On top of the great experience of picking up your car at the famous BMW Welt Delivery Center, you can save serious money on a new BMW, usually anywhere from 7% to 10%. But I won’t be getting into all the details now, you can read more in our BMW European Delivery section.

Last summer, one of our readers, Jedrzej Jonasz, sent us email explaining his upcoming video project: a series of episodes on the BMW European Delivery Program detailing the entire process from purchasing the car to picking it up and to exploring the more unique European destination and roads.

Jedrzej is a producer of a web travel series on a site called Tripfilms.com as well as a filmmaker with a documentary and film background.

Today, we have the first episode with more to come every week.

What can be better than buying a BMW M5, picking it up in the old beautiful Europe and pushing the car to the limit on the German Autobahns? Well, many things can be better, but for a BMW fan, this could be the ultimate car purchase.

BMW European Delivery is one of those perks that us, bimmer fans, are spoiled with. The purchasing experience, the delivery and the Europe vacation are something that we will remember forever, and most likely we will be bragging about it to our friends, while already planning for the next one.

Last week, BMW’s Manager of European Delivery Program, Mrs. Keri-Lynne Shaw, talked to us openly about the program, what makes it special, what the benefits are and what the emotional return is. I strongly encourage you to read the interview if you missed it, lots and lots of good information in there and please, if you still have questions, feel free to ask.

Now returning to our M5, what you will see below are some great photos that were taken in Europe recently. Our friend Irv Robinson put us in touch with Mark, the lucky owner of the M luxury sedan. We didn’t have time to get all the details from Mark yet about his trip, but he was kind to share with us some photos.

Now tell me if they don’t make you jealous.

Thanks Mark and Irv

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BMW European Delivery is one of those gems within the wonderful BMW world and it represents one of the most amazing experiences that you could get when purchasing a BMW. Having experienced two of them myself, I can come to you today and tell you what an amazing adventure that was, a unique experience that made me change the way I think about purchasing a BMW.
Since we have officially launched our blog, we have posted many stories, photos and videos of people that went to Germany and pick up their cars at the BMW delivery centers. Along with the great stories, there were many questions that I kept collecting and decided that one day, I will have one of the BMW representatives get into more details with us.

With that thought in mind, about a month ago, I contacted the Head of the BMW European Delivery program in the U.S, Mrs. Keri-Lynne Shaw, requesting an interview. Keri-Lynne agreed immediately and below, you will see one of the best interviews I have conducted to this date. Despite her important role and title, she was a great person to talk to, very enthusiastic, outgoing and with an impressive knowledge of the BMW brand and family.

The interview was an hour long and time just flew by. I really hope you will enjoy it since a lot of work has been put into this and in the same time, I am hoping that it will answer many of the questions that you might have had, regarding the BMW European Delivery process.

Horatiu: When did the European Delivery program first take effect?
Keri-Lynne Shaw: I don’t have the exact year, my records only go back to 1994, but I understand that it’s been around since the 80’s.

Horatiu: What prompted BMW to start such a program?
Keri-Lynne Shaw: Build owner loyalty. Any kind of program that connects the customers to the brand and immerses them in the world of BMW, is a positive brand loyalty experience. Our customers are more likely to buy a BMW again if they take part in this program.

Horatiu: How did it expand and evolved in the last few years? What factors were key to the rapid evolvement of the program?
Keri-Lynne Shaw: Since I have been here, we almost doubled sales, interesting with a declining dollar against the Euro. We had a little downturn this year with the economy and European travel, and of course the Euro hasn’t helped us, but since I got here in 2004, we almost doubled sales. So, we were very very successful.
So, it has been a positive increase and much of that has been exposure with the dealers, because if we don’t have the dealers buy in, we are never going to get the customer. We have to convince the dealer that it is not additional work and that it is a special way to not only connect their customer to BMW but to their BMW center as well.

So, the key is to get the dealers to get it and really believe in the program, and that’s what we have worked on for the past four and a half years, to make sure dealers are on board. Having advocates in the store is the key and we’ve enhanced the program internally to make it easier to use. Read the rest of this entry »

If you ladies and gentlemen have not been to the new BMW Welt Delivery Center, then you don’t know what you are missing. Strolling through BMW Welt, with its cyclone-shaped entrance and billowing, cloudlike facade, it is easy to forget why the carmaker built this more than $250 million palace: to hand over cars to customers.

Last time I was there was back in January and I had an amazing time, I spent almost 12 hours, just walking around and enjoying BMW’s art piece. So, yesterday, when one of our readers, Rimfire(his screen and company name), emailed me some photos that he recently took at the Welt and the newly opened BMW Museum, I became nostalgic and realized how much I would love to go back. I became even more jealous, when Rimfire told me that he received a private showing of the 2009 BMW 750Li.

Enough said, let me just give you the opportunity to enjoy these great pictures. Oh, and there are some pretty cool cars displayed in the Museum, so I’m sure you will dig those as well.

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Hello again,

after some pictures of the architecture of the BMW Welt it is time to show you some of the cars you can see in the BMW Welt. After this there will be another story with pictures from the BMW Museum, but this will take some time since I took so many pictures there of so many different cars, all deserving to be published here…

A 135i Coupé to start with, standing within the double-cone and very nice to look at in that colour.

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